Two Tory councillors have been suspended from the party after sending a racist joke to an email list including Ribble Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans, the mayor of South Ribble, and fellow Conservative councillors.

Simon Farnsworth, a Ribble Valley councillor, sent the joke on to Ken Hind, his fellow councillor and a former Tory parliamentary candidate in Selby and Lancashire West at the 1997 and 1992 elections. Hind then sent it on to a long list of Tories, including Evans; DW Parkinson, the mayor of South Ribble; and other South Ribble and Ribble Valley councillors.

When the Guardian drew the Conservative party's attention to the email, the two men were suspended.

The joke runs as follows:

A Somalian arrives in the UK as a new immigrant. He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you Mr UK man for letting me into this country, giving me housing, money for food, free medical care, free education and no taxes!"

The passerby says, "You are mistaken, I am an Afghani [sic]!"

The man goes on and encounters another passer by. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in the UK!"

The person says, "I not from the UK, I am Iraqi!"

The new arrival walks further, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand and says, 'Thank you for the wonderful UK!' That person puts up his hand and says, "I am from Pakistan, I am not from the UK!"

He finally sees a nice lady and asks, "Are you British?"

She says, "No, I am from India!" Puzzled, he asks her, "Where are all the British?"

The Indian lady checks her watch and says: "Probably all at work."

The email ended with another joke: "IF YOU DON'T PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS YOU WILL RECEIVE 3 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ABSOLUTELY FREE."

A Tory spokesman said: "Simon Farnsworth and Ken Hind have been suspended from the Party. The contents of this email have no place in the Conservative party."

Hind said he apologised to "all those people from the nations mentioned in the joke. It was not my intention to insult their racial origins, and I deeply regret passing on this item as I recognise now that it could cause offence."

He added: "In my daily life I deal with many people of different racial origins in our diverse community and in our relationships get on well with them. I deprecate those who are racist. On many occasions I have been outspoken in my condemnation of those who incite racial hatred and am committed to developing an integrated tolerant community in which all races creeds and religions live side by side in peace.

"I am privileged to name amongst my friends and associates many who are of Asian or African origin. I wish to emphasise that any apparent insult or criticism contained in the joke does not reflect my views or those of the Conservative party."

Farnsworth has also been contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.

David Eccleston, who received the email by mistake and passed it to the Guardian, said that many people thought David Cameron "seems like a nice guy and he seems to care", but "these jokes bring you back to Earth with a bang because you realise that behind Cameron's call for 'change' are the same old nasty Conservative party – and that's not change."

On the other side of the political divide, candidate John Cowan was suspended from the Labour party last week for boasting about his sex life online and saying he would not want his children to marry a Muslim. And, on 10 April, Labour suspended Stuart MacLennan, the candidate in Moray, for offensive comments he made on Twitter.